Writing Great Books for Young Adults: Everything You Need to Know, from Crafting the Idea to Getting Published

by Regina Brooks

With an 87 percent increase in the number of titles published in the last two years, the young adult market is one of the healthiest segments in the industry. Surprisingly, though, little has been written to help book publishing authors hone their craft to truly connect with this audience.
Writing Great Books for Young Adults gives writers all the advice they need to tap this incredible market. Literary agent Regina L. Brooks shows writers how to listen to young adults, so that they can create characters young adults can identify with.
Topics covered include:
--Listening to the voices of youth
--Meeting your young protagonist
--Developing a writing style
--Constructing plots
--Trying on points of view
Regina Brooks has developed award-winning authors across the YA genre, including a Coretta Scott King winner. She attends more than 20 conferences each year, meeting with authors and teaching

Genres: Writing, Nonfiction, Reference, Crafts, Adult, How To, Research

224 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2008

About the author

Regina Brooks is an award-winning author and literary expert with an indefatigable passion for guiding the careers of some of the publishing worlds best and brightest stars. As the founder and president of Serendipity Literary Agency LLC., a full-service company based in Brooklyn, NY, which was hailed by Writers Digest Magazine as one of the top 25 literary agencies of 2004, Ms. Brooks continues to break down barriers and shape the literary landscape by signing authors who challenge the written word.

Led by Ms. Brooks, Serendipity Literary Agency LLC., has established a diverse base of award-winning authors in the adult and young adult fiction, non-fiction, and children's genres; including three-time National Book Award finalist, Newberry and Coretta Scott King award-winning author Marilyn Nelson, and Coretta Scott King Award winner, Sundee Frazier, author of Brendan Buckleys Universe and Everything in it, an Oprah Book Pick and an Al Roker Book Club selection.

With over fifteen years of experience in senior positions at major publishing houses, including John Wiley & Sons Inc (where she was the youngest member of the editorial staff and the first African-American editor in their college division) and the McGraw-Hill companies, Ms. Brooks, a graduate of the Howard University Publishing Institute and faculty member of the Harvard CME publishing course, is also the author of the childrens book, Never Finished! Never Done! (Scholastic, 2004). She is a book blogger for the Huffingtonpost.com

Ms. Brooks is also the founder and executive director of YB Literary Foundation, Inc., a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to promote the reading of literature as a meaningful, lifelong activity and transformative experience for youth. Much to her delight, this aspect of her charitable work in particular keeps her apprised of the latest teen trends. Through a roster of community-focused programming that draws on popular culture, YBs goal is to expose youth to literature that is relevant to their livesliterature that speaks to their realities, their experiences and to their potential as future leaders. The organization has touched thousands of high school students in the NY/NJ area alone. Under her guidance, the YB Literary Foundation established a partnership with The National Urban League to launch the hiphopreader.com program.

A New York Urban League Rising Star Award winner and a 2004 finalist for the StevieTM Award for Women Entrepreneurs, Regina Brooks is featured in books such as The Guide to Literary Agents and the NAACP nominated Down to Business 10 steps for Women Entrepreneurs. She is also listed in International Who's Who under the categories of Professional Management, Technology, Entrepreneurs, and Engineering.

Ms. Brooks serves on the board of Soul Mountain Literary Retreat Center and is a member of the Brooklyn Book Festival Committee for Childrens and Young Adult Literature. An active member of the National Association of Female Executives and NY Women in Television and Film and a member of the National Association of Professional Women, she lectures at over a dozen conferences annually, including the Society of Childrens Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI), Bologna Book Fair and the American Library Association.
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Reviews

[Hailey (Hailey in Bookland) · Rating 2 out of 5]

This had some helpful tidbits of information but I found that for the most part it underestimated and babied YA readers, basically suggesting they should not be challenged and they should have the story handed to them. It also operated under the assumption that those interested in this book are writing YA just to cash in on the market.

[Annalisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have an aversion to reading books on writing so I was a little surprised when I saw this on the library shelf and actually checked it out. I'd seen it recommended on a few sites and was a little curious about what this agent would have to say, what she thought was different in YA than the rest of the market, and if she had any great advice. It failed to impress me.

The first part of the book I kept thinking this was for all those people who at close of Twilight thought, "I could do that, and better. Maybe I'll write a book," but had never written anything in their life. Those were the type of people who might find a very general overview of how to pick a genre and story idea and main character useful. But Brooks choice of words kept bothering me. She was describing basic concepts but using advanced terminology without defining any of it. Either you already knew everything she was explaining or you needed a dictionary to follow her. I'm not sure who her intended audience is.

I'm also not sure how some of those general overviews were supposed to help. Take, for example, the paragraph on dialogue punctuation. "Few rules in writing are as inflexible as dialogue punctation rules. Any beginning writer who strays from accepted use does so at his own peril. An author struggling with dialogue punctuation can find many guides on the web as well as in books and magazine articles." Or an author could check out a book subtitled "Everything You Need to Know" that actually explained what those rules were and how to apply them.

She also repeatedly hounds the fact that teenagers aren't mature enough for the literary devices that go into adult, literary fiction. I understood what she was saying and it is important to tame down a YA novel to the level a teenager can digest and enjoy, but if I were teenager reading that, I know I would have been defiant that I was as mature as any adult I knew. While telling you to write fiction that connects with teenagers, she was showing how not to connect with teenagers. I found the whole tone ironic.

Occasionally Brooks did go into detail that I found useful. Some of the pitfalls, like with dialogue and story endings were interesting, but I think a more apt title would have been Everything You Need to Know to Analyze Young Adult Fiction. It didn't seem like she wanted to help young-adult authors write as much as show that she knew the ins and outs of young-adult fiction. The book wasn't what it was advertised to be (and there were way to many typographical errors).

[Sarah Pottenger · Rating 1 out of 5]

Please, for the love of all that is holy, don't read this. It's okay until Chapter 4, when things start not making sense. Do not read a book on writing for teenagers that is written by someone who thinks teenagers are too immature and inexperienced to read and understand the breadth of adult fiction.

[Derek · Rating 2 out of 5]

About 95% general writing advice, and only 5% (about 10 pages total) insights into YA fiction, mostly common-sense. The author repeatedly advises the reader to go do the research him/herself instead of providing research/examples. I wish more niche genre books would skip the Novel 101 material and get to the specifics of the niche.

Some head-scratchers: Brooks incorrectly refers to a present participle in the progressive tense as a gerund and makes the all-too-common mistake of advising that first-person POV means "I/me" and third-person means "he/she/they." Tell that to Dickens whenever he refers to himself, or to any first-person narrator who refers to another character as "she."

At one point Brooks warns against the apprentice novelist taking college courses because professors are not critical enough. My experience as a student and as an instructor has been very much otherwise.

[Eleanor Imbody · Rating 1 out of 5]

Blech, no. The advice in this book is unbearably elementary. Is this a book for adults about writing for a young audience, or a book for young people wanting to write? The title actually could go either way, but the book frequently talks about MG/YA audiences, so apparently, it's the former, but the incredibly basic instructions made it feel like a patronizing version of the latter.

A major issue I had with the book was how little respect the author seems to have for young readers. Respect for the intelligence and emotional capabilities of your reader is, in my opinion, the most important thing for an author to possess, particularly when writing for younger audiences. Also, it was hard to believe this book was written by a woman, considering she uses exclusively masculine pronouns when referring to characters and writers.

All in all, a total bizarre waste of time.

[Cassandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writing advice was a bit disappointing and honestly, kind of juvenile and demeaning to YA devotees, but I can’t deny the industry advice (on querying and editing) is pretty invaluable.

It’s clear Brooks knows the business half of YA.

I wish the book had been focused on the publication process and her advice for querying an agent and polishing manuscripts instead of dedicating over half of it to her writing advice.

[Alexis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four stars just for the useful tips on the industry. Three stars for the writing advice. Two stars or less for the times when it speaks condescendingly of the capabilities of young adult readers. As someone who read the Iliad at age 11, I know that young readers are often capable (and desirous) of much more than they are given credit for.

[Jacquelyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Regina Brooks does a fantastic job of outlining the fundamentals of writing for the YA audience. Calling on her vast experience as a literary agent, she breaks down the entire process--from developing ideas to submitting queries to agents--in an easily digestible fashion. She discusses many of the rules you've probably heard before, such as "show, don't tell" and "avoid adjectives and adverbs," but instead of presenting them as inviolable laws, she explains why those guidelines are there and when and how you might successfully break them. The book concludes with a nice list of resources, including MFA programs targeted at YA authors, web sites with info on editors and writing guidelines, and a list of competitions and awards for YA fiction.

The thing I loved most about this book was that unlike so many FAQs and guidelines provided by literary agents, there was nothing condescending in any of her advice. She includes the inevitable mention of how busy she is in order to explain why she sends out canned rejections, but the tone is more one of regret that she can't reply personally to every email instead of weary irritation that you might some day burden her with your query. She even includes a quote from an editor praising writers as being "the heart, conscious conscience, and soul of humanity." What a lovely change from all the cautionary tales and vague advice (Writing is a horribly tough and lonely business! Make the first three words of your query really sizzle!) that seem to be peppered all over the Internet.

In a world where publishing often feels like one of the hero's journeys we write about, where getting an agent to respond to your queries at all can feel like the thirteenth labor of Hercules, this book is refreshing in its straightforward content, empowering advice, and message of hope. Although I am happily self-published, reading this book has made me reconsider traditional publishing--and burdening agents with my queries once again.

[Diayll · Rating 4 out of 5]

Originally Reviewed At: Mother/Gamer/Writer
Rating: 4 out of 5 Controllers
Review Source: NetGalley
Reviewer: Ariel



If you are someone who loves to write and would enjoy possible writing some Young Adult fiction, I would recommend Writing Great Books for Young Adults by Regina Brooks. I love reading YA books, and writing is also one of my hobbies, so I was really excited to read this book. Regina Brooks breaks the book up in different chapters with each one focusing on a different aspect of writing fiction, many of which can be applied to adult fiction as well as YA fiction. Some of the chapters include Meeting Your Characters, Building Your Plot, and Learning to Write Dialogue.

As I mentioned, most of the aspects of this book can be applied not just to writing YA fiction, but fiction in general. This could be viewed as a positive or a negative thing, depending on what you are looking for. I tend to see it as a positive, because the tips included in this book are tips that are useful to anyone looking to write fiction.

Brooks highlights a lot of useful things, covering pretty much every portion of the writing process. There were a few inconsistencies that really bothered me, though. At one point, I believe in the chapter on Dialogue, Brooks says to never read your manuscript aloud to yourself, because you already know where you want the inflections and tones that people are supposed to speak with. Instead, she suggests having someone read your manuscript to you. However, Brooks later states in the book that one of the things you should do when you begin the editing process is to read the manuscript aloud to yourself. So that was something that stood out to me, mostly because in between those two points in the book, Brooks talks about inconsistencies in YA fiction and how to avoid them.

One of the things that I really enjoyed about the book is that it gave some insight into the publishing world, and how you go about getting a novel published. It tells you everything you need to submit to an agent, as well as some of the different things an agent actually does. The book also has a few appendices in the back with a ton of different resources you can use, from different publishing companies for YA literature, to different resources for getting feedback on your novel.

Overall, I would give Writing Great Books for Young Adults 4 out of 5 controllers. There’s a lot of useful information on the writing process, the publishing process, and everything in between.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

Regina Brooks tells us that she was originally an engineer, and unfortunately, her approach to her book follows that mind-set: how to write a YA book broken into its component parts of plot, setting, characters, dialogue, etc., etc. At times, it reads like a textbook, at its worst when it starts listing the twenty-six different types of conclusions to plots. Lists are fine, but concrete and engaging examples would have been much better.

Don't get me wrong. The information is all very valuable, and people reading this as their first book about how to improve writing or navigate the publishing world will come away with lots of valuable pieces of information. But readers like me who have already read these kinds of books will leave disappointed, having heard most (but not all) of the information before. But the most disappointing aspect of it was that it didn't feel like it had much information unique to YA literature, just literature in general.

I will say that I thought the chapter on finding a theme very helpful and orienting for my own writing. And the early exercise on connecting to one's own teenage hurts and anxieties was really promising. Had Brooks pursued that line, she would have had a much stronger book.

[Jen Ryland (jenrylandreviews & yaallday)]

Some good basic advice, both for fiction writers in general and those who want to write YA. However, if you have previously studied creative writing or read a lot of how-to writing books, you may find the advice a bit elementary. If you are just getting started, this book does a good job of touching briefly on some important concepts and advice.

Not every rule about writing YA fiction is unanimous or clear-cut and there is some stuff in here I disagree with. Yes, YA is generally read by people 12 and older, but I do not think that most YA readers are interested in books with a 12-14 year old protagonist, and even 15 can be iffy. (This book says that YA protagonists should be 12-18, while in my experience as a longtime YA reader and blogger, 99% of YA protagonists are 16-17.)

I found some of the other advice -- snail-mailed query letters with SASEs and manuscripts printed on paper lolol -- a little old-school, then saw on Goodreads that this book was originally published in 2008, so that explains that... kinda.

[Craig · Rating 2 out of 5]

Starring Zooey Deschanel on the cover!

This book has a lot of annoying exercises which are more for someone who has zero inkling of what they want to do with a YA novel. I guess that's hedging bets for the audience of the book, but it winds up forcing someone who has an existing idea to have to skip around in the text to make the most of what's here/ unnecessary.

There is good, general literary stuff here (list of conflicts, character types, etc), as well as a good section on thinking about literary agents. I'm just not sure, as an overall package, that this is totally effective or "everything" I need to know.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good, solid book on the craft of writing that is geared primarily toward beginners. Most of the advice is tailored to the young adult market, though the principles apply across all genres. I did not, however, appreciate the repetition that young adult readers (read: teens) aren't emotionally, physically, mentally, etc. mature enough to handle certain topics, themes, or literary styles with the same nuance and sophistication as adults. This sentiment follows a rule that the writer should never talk down to their teen audience.

[Meaghan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Decent enough, commonsense advice on how to write and sell books for young adults. The YA genre isn't that different from any other, and most of the advice could apply to all fiction books. Like all "how to write" books, however, this is of limited use -- I think if you really needed a book like this to be able to write well then you might as well not even bother.

[Taffy]

Like any book on writing and young adult writing, you get out of it what you need or what will help you in your own writing. Tips, ideas, strategies, prompts and helps fill this book and can help in some way. I read it for a few chapters then skimmed the rest because I got what I wanted/needed out of the book.

Thanks to netgalley for the read in exchange for my honest review.

[Molly · Rating 2 out of 5]

This doesn't contain anything you can't find for free on a blog, so I'm glad I checked it out from the library instead of buying it.

[Samantha Fox · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had a couple of helpful tidbits and information on the industry & craft, which is why I'm giving it 3 stars (which is generous), but I had such a hard time getting over the condescending nature it had towards young adult readers. As someone who was a middle schooler with a college reading level, I'm a little insulted over how belittling this is towards teenagers and how we need to dumb down the writing since they don't have the maturity to handle "complex stories." There were many times where I had to put the book down because I was straining my eyes from rolling them so hard. I agree to a certain point regarding this, but I feel like the book did not convey it well.

It's definitely geared towards people who clearly have no idea on how teenagers act and even goes as far as to suggest spending time with teens to get a sense of what teenagers are like. This is going to come off as rude, but I'm sorry. If you have to research how teenagers act in order to write them, you probably shouldn't be writing YA...but then again, what do I know?

It's written very plainly to go over the basics of craft & Young Adult literature. For people who already studied writing or is looking for something a little more in depth, this isn't for you. This is basically "The Bare Bones of Young Adult for Dummies".

I ended up with a copy of this as a Christmas gift from a friend who knew I wanted to study more about the craft of writing & Young Adult literature. I would not go seek this out on my own.

[Sarah Tinaburri · Rating 4 out of 5]

It had some pretty good advice overall, though I would say that some of it is a little outdated, not surprising considering it was first published in 2008 with the revision done in 2013 — she was very pro-agent and traditional publishing, where as since 2008 there had been giant leaps in the self-publishing industry.

Some reviews on this have said she was guilty of encouraging authors to baby teen readers. I think she was trying to be realistic about the psychological development of teens. This is remembering that a teen at 14 and a teen at 18 differ vastly in terms of growth, so I don’t think this is entirely unwarranted and should be considered. The only time she really overstepped in that regard personally was a comment that suggested writers should hold back in terms of the language they use. Considering most writers don’t write with language more complicated than an eighth grade level, even in adult writing, this seems unnecessary. And if she was talking about the likes of swear words, I think they can handle this! Most kids have at least heard common swear words. So long as they’re in an appropriate context and not done purely for dramatisation I don’t think it’s a problem.

Overall I enjoyed the book and it brought up many good points and suggestions in crafting a novel.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

So, I've been reading (and taking notes on) a lot of books about writing in preparation for several attempts to finally start writing a novel. For whatever reason, a lot of the advice clicked with me, as I found my typed document now contains around 12 pages of notes from this book (the document is 29 pages total and includes notes from eight other books). It details a lot of general writing advice as well as things specifically for YA. It may not hold as much for more experienced writers.

The biggest flaw of this book is that while it features many long lists of parts of the novel, these lists are almost never accompanied by examples of YA novels that do this well. The lack of this is especially frustrating in a list of twenty or so ways to end a novel, especially when towards the end of the list, the options sound similar (and in my opinion, not a good idea for ending a novel--YA or otherwise). Knowing novels I can seek out that use them would be a very useful for telling the differences between (and seeing well executed because these sound like they do several things Brooks tells readers not to) monologue, narrative, reflection, and dialogue endings.

[Cerebral Calisthenics · Rating 3 out of 5]

Regina Brooks has a great way of taking information from THE ENTIRE INDUSTRY and boiling it down neatly into 208 pages. Although, it is a bit outdated now, even in reading the second edition, (i.e. a few websites she recommended were no longer active), but there were also some gems in there that I am obsessed with like... literature-map.com and bookbrowse.com! I also love that she has a map of YA publishers at the end because WOW, when you google "YA authors," now that is a serious mess of information that is daunting.

If anything, I wish she had elaborated on certain topics more, like theme. Discovering the theme in my stories has always been difficult, and although she nailed it down the best out of all the sources I've looked into so far, I still wish there was more!

All in all, if you see this book on the shelf of your local library or used bookstore, get it, but don't buy it new. If you're looking for a how-to on YA novels, check out something written less than a decade ago.

[Christiana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Writing Great Books for Young Adults is a great introduction to the basics of novel writing. It walks you step by step through the process from finding your story through landing an agent. Along the way, it includes small writing exercises and gives lots of practical advice.

I would recommend reading this book before starting your first YA novel. Although I found that some of the tips were still helpful after completing my first manuscript, I feel it would have been more beneficial before hand. I would also have liked more information about editing, writing groups, and getting an agent. There were two chapters and some resources as the end of the book which gave an overview of these topics, but I wanted more.

I recommend this book to any first time writer considering writing a YA novel.

[beyond_blue_reads · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had to read this for a course. I'm generally against 'how to' books, so probably wouldn't have picked it up if it hadn't been a requirement. This book reminded me why.

Although I picked up a few useful pointers, and a couple of things I hadn't thought about before, on the whole I found it a mind-numbing experience to plough through endless rules and lists and must remembers and tips. Fine to dip in and out of, but as a whole it actually put me off writing rather than inspiring me. Everything was made to seem so formulaic.

The fact that her default gender was male annoyed me too. Readers were consistently referred to as 'he' - really? This is outdated and intensely irritating, and for me marked the author out as someone who is distanced from contemporary YA readers. I did not finish the book. Two stars because I did pick up a few useful tips along the way.

[T.H. Hernandez · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one has been sitting on my bookshelf for a while, and I think I might have found it more useful if I'd read it when I first bought it a few years ago. There's certainly useful tidbits throughout, but it's neither a how-to nor a definitive resource on all things young adult fiction. Instead, it's an overview of fiction writing with additional information on what makes writing for young adults different from writing for adults. It's pretty void of details, but the overall concepts the author touches on are critical to success. I found the most useful information in Chapter 9 on theme. Depending on where you find your own writing lacking, you may discover something to help you as well.

Bottom Line
Useful information at a high level, but not much depth.

[Leah Stapleton · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I thought she did a good job of addressing the key issues writers face with YA, she came short when it came to explaining herself. Her statements were a bit vague and were written as if everyone already understood certain concepts, which can be intimidating to new writers. I did like the simplicity though, I hate reading writing books that give heavy explanations, but I find a great writer can explain concepts simply with clarity. I liked her tips on editing, when she mentioned to cut all the unnecessary. I like this because it helps me focus in on what my story is really about.. trimming out the bs and getting to what I'm really trying to say.

[Debra Daniels-Zeller · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was written in 2009 and though some of the information is great, some of it feels a bit dated. YA novels now are more character driven. Perhaps they relied on plot only in the past, but characters have brought movie deals for books like The Hunger Games. That said, this book has lots of useful information, but I've read much of it before in other books: 36 Dramatic Situations, Setting and Timeline, Developing Characters, Understanding Plot--all good, but not much new stuff for YA. This book is good, and if you haven't read many books on writing fiction this is a book worth investigating.

[Ana · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this as part of a course and it was... Ok. I guess. Kind of.

Like I discussed with another friend, it feels like the book is full of very basic things, information that anyone who has written an essay would know and tidbits of actual useful advice that could very well have just been a blog.

It's not that helpful, in my opinion. I haven't come out of it with any new information that I didn't already know about writing in general.

As a final note, I want to say it also felt very dated somehow. And the humor, or what I assume we're supposed to be jokes, were not great. Which made reading them a bit painful lol.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

This has some really good information in it. Though some is now outdated since publication, (Myspace), and at times the author thinks too little of the YA readers she's representing within the pages, there are a lot of really good nuggets in here.
I'd suggest, don't use it as gospel but as a building block to helping you understand and learn, and continue to read more, non just non fiction, how-to books, but everything. And as is stated in here, read everything you can by other authors that write in the genre you want to.

[McKenna R · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. This was a good, informative book, but it took me nearly a year to finish. It’s one of those books I just developed a mental block about and had a hard time actually finishing, so I’m glad it’s over now. That said, I learned a lot from it and took notes that I think will be helpful. I liked the list of children’s and YA MFA programs in the back, and I loved how Brooks really did cover everything from conceptualizing a book to publishing it. It’s pretty simple and straightforward, written from the perspective of a YA literary agent.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

It felt very dated in the information and advice. Likewise, it also seemed that the author was giving advice for books that weren’t genre. Perhaps not and I’m being critical for no reason whatsoever, but I often felt that some of the tips and do’s and don’ts wouldn’t apply to sci-fi/fantasy.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wow, it took me five years to finish reading this. That should tell you something about it. Actually, I set it aside for a few years and started reading from the beginning. Still, it's only an okay book. If you read a lot of how-to-write books, they mainly start to sound the same.